Santa Margarita-Sacramento High - Remastered
March 15th, 2008, 4:40 pm · Post a Comment · posted by ADAM MAYA, OCREGISTER.COM since 2006
My Santa Margarita-Sacramento High boys Division III state title blog in its entirety…
It’s raining Thompsons
Santa Margarita swings the ball around on consecutive possessions and it results in two 3-pointers, first by Trayce Thompson, then brother Klay. Do the Thompson kids look unassuming?
Eagles guard Jason Pancoe comes up with an offensive rebound and it leds to a layup for Klay. Trayce then drives for a reverse layup (of course).
Klay cuts backdoor and finds himself wide open for a dunk. Thompson’s 14, Sacramento High 3.
Sacramento’s Chase Tapley maneuvers through the middle for a layup. Klay told me coming in he was the heart and soul of the team and so far Tapley looks legit.
With Klay out of the game, Tapley hits a jumper over Pancoe to make it an eight-point deficit. Klay heads to the scorer’s table.
Klay and Tapley trade 3-pointers.
After a missed jumper by Santa Margarita, Sacramento’s Chris Avenant turns a nice pump fake into an open 15-footer. The Eafgle sare playing a little too fast on offense.
“They got caught in (Sacramento’s) pace,” Fryer says. Yessir.
Trayce passes up an open jumper and flips it to his brother for another 3. Most kids would have taken that shot, but Trayce got the ball in a better shooter’s hands. Klay has 15.
SM 21, SH 14
End of 1Q
The Chase is on
SM center Jaime Serna receives a great look from Klay for a layup, then tips in a missed layup by Trayce. Serna had a quiet first quarter, but he can always be counted on to contribute.
Sacramento is very active on the offensive side. You can expect a follow up attempt on nearly all its missed shots, and a lot of that starts with Tapley.
Tapley banks in a 3. He now has 21. SM still leads by six.
Klay tips in a miss and he now has 21. There is a noticeable difference in how he and Tapley have done it, tho. Klay has done a lot of his damage within SM’s offense. Tapley has just been relentlessly going at the Eagles.
Klay swats a layup back into the face of a Sacramento player and it bounces right to Tapley, who makes a jumper.
Zaragoza and Jesse Hazely add free throws in the final minute to extend the Eagles lead.
SM 40, SH 29
Halftime
Welcome to the Klay and Tapley show
Klay has gone most the game without defending Tapley. I’m thinking this is because of the Demar DeRozan fiasco from a month ago. When Santa Margarita played Compton in the CIF-SS quarterfinals, Klay picked up three fouls on DeRozan before the end of the first quarter. He sat out the entire second quarter and came back to lead SM to victory in the second half. This week, Klay told me he would be guarding Tapley. He only has one foul, so you wonder if SM coach Jerry DeBusk will make a change in the second half. Tapley’s effort has single-handedly kept Sacramento in this one.
Klay begins the half defending Tapley, but is looking very careful about it. Tapley drives in and draws a foul on Klay, his second.
SM takes its biggest lead of the game after a 3 by Klay, who came off a screen. If you give him time…
Tapley and Klay trade layups. Then they trade 3-pointers. Tapley has 28, Klay 29. This is awesome.
Some on press row have resorted to sighing when Klay and/or Tapley miss a shot. That’s how well they are playing.
Hazely makes a layup to beat the shot clock with seven seconds left.
SM 55, SH 42
End of 3Q
Broken records
Serna picks up two fouls in the first minute and has fouled out. I’d say this could be a long seven minutes for the Eagles, but Klay is doing too much to for them to be concerned.
Tapley misses a layup. He’s missed quite a few since halftime.
Santa Margarita is called for its 10th foul of the half, but it amounts to nothing as Sacramento misses its free throws. A better showing from the line today would have made a big difference for the Dragons.
Klay knocks down a 3 from NBA range, then makes a layup in transition the next trip down to give the Eagles a 17-point lead, their largest. Tapley vs. Klay was fun while it lasted.
Thompson makes another 3, his seventh, and a new state title record. he’s also tied the Division III state title record with 37 points. I want to see him make one more 3.
And apparently, so does everyone else. Klay just fired from the top of the key and there was a buzz in the arena as he went up. But he missed.
Zaragoza makes a 3 and then dunks. After a timeout, Klay and the rest of the SM starters exit. Klay finishes with 37, Tapley with 35.
Two for three, Orange County. Not too bad.
SM 72, SH 55
Final
Adam Maya/the new and “untouchable” OCVarsity
